Bingo board with number covering slides



Jan. 31, 1956 J. F. MOORE ET AL BINGO BOARD WITH NUMBER COVERING SLIDES Filed Jan. 18.

WWW/Auml Afro/wafer United States Patent' BNGO BOARD WI'THNUMBR COVERINGSLIDE'S t This invention relates to a players board for playing the well-known game of nbingo, and" has *foi*y its principal object the provision f ai' highly efficient number board having movable slides built into the board for covering -selected numbers thereon and to provide a rapid and simple means for attaching the slides to the number board.`

Another object of the invention is to provide highly efficient means on the slides which will actto retain them in position on the board without the use of additional retaining devices.

A further object is to provide a number board slide with retaining means which, when forced through a slot in said board from the rear thereof, will expand on the forward face of the board so as to securely support the slide on the rear of the board.

Other objects and advantages reside in the detail con struction of the invention, which is designed for simplicity, economy, and efficiency. These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention, reference is had to the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof. Like numerals refer to like parts in all views of the drawing and throughout the description.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary face view of the upper lefthand corner of a conventional bingo board, showing the invention in place thereon;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the board,y taken on the line 2--2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a front perspective view of an improved number-covering slide employed in the improved board;

Fig. 4 is a rear perspective view of the number-covering slide;

Fig. 5 is a greatly magnified section through the attachment portion of the number covering slide, illustrating it as it would appear when being inserted in a slot in the board; and

Fig. 6 is a similar magnified section, illustrating the number covering slide as it would appear when fully in place in the board.

The improved players board incorporates a front board 10 provided with rectangular window openings 11 arranged in horizontal alignment and in vertical columns thereon. Game numbers, as indicated at 12 are visible through the window openings 11. The numbers are imprinted on a back board 13 which may be directly secured to the back of the front board 10 in any desired manner, such as by adhesives, stapling, etc., or it may be maintained in separated relation to the players board by means of a spacing insert 14 which may be secured between the front and back boards in any desired manner.

A horizontal slide slot 15 is formed in the front board 10 immediately below each of the windows 11. The slide slots 15 extend to one side of the windows, preferably the left side, for a distance substantially equal to the width of the windows 11. The slide slots 15 are for the pur- 2,733,067 Patented Jan. 31, 1956 pose of mounting an improved number-covering slide on the rear face of the frontboard 10;

The improvednumber-covering slide is illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, and is formed from any suitable semi-flexible, readily molded material, such asy one of the alkyd resin plastics preferably polyethylene, since the latter is unusually flexible and strong and little affected by Wide extremes irl temperature.

The'number-covering-'slide is molded to vform a rectangular number-covering portion .16, a` guide flange 17 and lower apron portion 18. The guide flange 17 projects forwardly and extends transversely or horizontally across theY slide adjacent` the lower edgethereof so that the ver'- tical width of the apron portion* 18 is less than the vertical width of the number-covering portion l16. A rectangular opening 19 extends completely through the slide and projectsabove and below the flange 17.

Two projectin'gvbairbs 20 are molded on the upper and .lower faces of the ange- 1.7 forwardly of and opposite the opening 19. The two barbs 20 are separated by an indented pocket 21` which extendsl forwardly into the4 .flange 17 from the opening 19. The horizontal width of the barbs 2l) is substantially equal to the horizontal width of the opening 19 and is less than the width of the complete slide. The opening 19 is necessary in the slide to allow a molding piece to extend through the slide from the rear to form the pocket 21 in the flange.

This structure allows the two barbs to be flexed toward each other by forcing the two sides of the pocket 21 together and allows them to expand to the projecting position, with the sides of the pocket 21 fully spread, due to the inherent elasticity of the molded plastic material. The apron portion 18 also acts to rigidly guide the slide in its sideward movements, and serves as a stilfening rein-- forcement for the tlange 17.

The improved board is assembled by placing the slides rearwardly of the windows 11, with the flanges 17 entering the slots 15. The slides are then forced forwardly, causing the flanges to move forwardly in their slots 15. The vertical thickness of the flanges is substantially equal to the vertical width of the slots 15, so that as each flange moves forwardly, the two barbs 20 thereof will be forced together, as shown in Fig. 5, until the flange is fully inserted, at which time the barbs will snap outwardly, as shown in Fig. 6, to permanently lock the slide in its slot 15. The backing board 13, with its numbers 12, is then attached to the back of the front board 1l), and the device 1s ready tor use. j

To cover a number, it is only necessary for the player to place his linger on the flange 17 corresponding to the number and force the flange to the right in its slot 1S to move the number-covering portion 16 of that slide over the selected number, as shown in the lower left-hand Window of Fig. 1.

It is desired to call attention to the ease with which the slides may be permanently attached to the front board by simple linger pressure due to the contraction and expansion of the barbs 20. The horizontal width of the llange prevents sideward tilting of the slide, and the barbs prevent inward movement thereof, so that the number slides are effectively retained in place at all times, and yet are free to slide back and forth into and out of their respective windows. The edges of the slots 15, where they intersect the front face of the front board, are preferably rounded, as indicated at 22, to prevent any roughness from interfering with sideward movement of the slides.

While a specific form of the improvement has been described and illustrated herein, it is to be understood that the same may be varied, within the the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Jlaving thus described the invention, what is claimed and desired secured by Letters Patent is:

1. in a bingo board, comprising a rear board member having an array of numbers on the front face thereof, a front board member formed with windows in Vregister with said numbers, exposing them to vie'w, and an individual slide member for each number disposed between the front and rear board members adapted to be slid into one position of adjustment to mask its respective number, and to be slid into another position to expose its number to view; the improvement, wherein said slide is formed of flexible resilient material comprising a thin at body portion of a size suicient to mask said window, said body portion formed with a tab, forming a finger piece projecting transversely from said body portion and protruding through a slot formed in the front board member adjacent to said window, said tab being formed with a barblike projection on each side thereof and an interior pocket between said projections, whereby the tab may be pressed through said slot, said projections yielding inwardly into said pocket and snapping out when the ta'u is fully inserted in the assembling operation, before the rear board member is assembled and attached to the front board member to complete the bingo board.

2. A bingo board as dened in claim 1 in which said slot is formed with an enlarged portion of a formation to fit said projecting portions, but of suciently smaller dimension transverse thereof to permit the forced entry of the projections through said enlarged portion, but preventing disengagement of the slide after the projections have passed through said enlarged portion and have snapped outwardly to engage the front surface of the front board member.

3. A bingo board as defined in claim 2, in which said slot except the enlarged portion thereof is of a transverse dimension fitting the transverse dimension of the body of the tab, whereby the slide is guided by the snug engagement of the tab within the slot so as to prevent skewing of the slide during its manual adjustment.

4. A bingo board as defined in claim l, wherein said body portion of the slide is formed with an opening extending above and below the tab member, said opening facilitating the molding of said pocket within the tab member.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 488,090 Rudge Dee. 13, 1892 2,062,057 Hobby Nov. 24, 1936 2,303,148 Timmerman Nov. 24, 1942 2,491,257 Fawkes Dec. 13, 1949 2,655,072 Poupitch Oct. 13, 1953 

